LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS (BookcluB & Dos Amigos!!)

Here's a surprise second post for your Friday night reading, which is devoted to SHORT NOTICE LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS concerning a big day for live music and downtown festival action TOMORROW, so what all can you expect?

Local acoustic punk cover duo Dos Amigos will return to Forty-Five Social TOMORROW as part of their second annual Lot & Loaded Parking Lot Jam! Apologies for the short notice, their involvement was announced by the 117 Spring Street barber shop's Facebook page last week, but Dos Amigos proper have not updated their Facebook page whatsoever since August. Given that, who knows what Dustin and Mikey might have been up to in recent months, but it's good to see them playing a publically advertised concert again! The Lot & Loaded Parking Lot Jam again coincides with the annual Sault Ste. Marie Festival of Beer on Queen Street East and the Downtown Plaza, which Forty-Five Social booking three solo artists to play alongside Dos Amigos TOMORROW. Amazingly, the lineup from 2025 returns intact for 2026, just with a shuffled lineup order, so look for folk musician Matthew (or Matty) James at 9:00 PM, veteran local staple Jay Case at 7:00 PM, Dos Amigos at 4:00 PM, and country musician Marty Frolick at 2:00 PM.

Each act has a two hour timeslot TOMORROW, with the 6:00 PM hour seemingly serving as an intermission. While there is no stated age limit for this outdoor concert, use common sense, as this is taking advantage of Beerfest, and there is no announced cover charge at Forty-Five Social. As seen in this Facebook video, the Parking Lot Jam will take place under a tent in the titular lot, but just in case, 9&10 News has a heavy chance of rain and thunderstorms during Marty's opening set, but precipitation odds will drop for Dos Amigos and it should dry up for Jay and Matthew. Temperatures are projected to start at around 18° and will drop to around 11°. Visit the above links for more details, and here's Dos Amigos live!

Next up, this won't be all for Mikey Hawdon and Dustin Jones TOMORROW, as the ex-Inner City Surfers bandmates will join their current alternative/punk cover supergroup BookcluB at the Downtown Plaza for the Sault Ste. Marie Festival of Beer's proper concert program! Again, apologies for the short notice, we only learned of BookcluB's involvement via Dustin's personal Facebook page yesterday (they haven't updated their Facebook page in three months, and I have not seen LopLops, Beerfest, or You Belong SSM announce a music schedule). Just a half hour after Dos Amigos wrap up outside of Forty-Five Social, they'll join the full band at the Plaza for what appears to be a headlining set at 6:30 PM, which will notably be one of (if not) their first gigs since adding former Hails guitarist Carmen Muto to their lineup, replacing the relocated Brandon Ruch. This was confirmed via Rotaryfest's website in their Stage 1 writeups for this year.

We'll have more on Rotaryfest 2026 on the SMS soon, but Carmen is a welcome (if surprising, given Hails' sound) addition to BookcluB, giving them a new young gun on guitar! I don't know the format for the Festival of Beer's music schedule TOMORROW, but if it's similar to last year's schedule, you should expect three more bands and two DJ slots from noon onward, with BookcluB likely playing for an hour. Queen Street East will be closed from 8:00 AM-10:00 PM from Brock Street to Spring Street, and attendees can expect loads of craft beer companies and brewers selling their wares for the occasion, while a food truck festival will debut at the Plaza as part of this LopLops-curated festival. Lack of a full band schedule aside, click here and visit the above links for more details on what to expect! There will be two further Queen Street closures TOMORROW for other well timed events.

Outspoken Brewing will host their Night Shift party from 5:00 PM-2:00 AM with Queen closed from Elgin to Bruce Street, though they are only hosting DJs for music. Meanwhile Queen Street will be closed from Bruce to Dennis Street for a special rooftop concert at Village Media's headquarters featuring Steel Rock & The Pine Tones (Superior Heights & White Pines' student rock bands) and local Filipino band Bituin, so there's a lot going on downtown! Alas, those rainy weather forecasts remain very much a factor for anything going on until 6:00 or so, so be prepared. General admission tickets for Beerfest cost $35, but click here for all ticket package tiers if you're still needing to buy tickets online. I do hope that the weather cooperates for the majority of TOMORROW'S Festival of Beer and related downtown events, so whether you're in it for the beer or the music (or both), see above for more details, and for a preview, here's Bookclub live at the Downtown Plaza!

That's all for now, but stay tuned for more news and notes on the SMS this weekend! Thanks everyone! 

LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS (Tym Morrison & HeadF1rst), Plus Weekend Concert Previews!!

Let's tackle another round of weekend concert previews on the SMS, though due to the amount, we'll push Saturday's Dos Amigos and Nameless concerts to tomorrow's post. Just for clarification, cover rock quartet Separate Wayz (featuring half of Soundcheck's final lineup) are at Jay's Piston Broke Pub this weekend, but we still await confirmation of their sound/setlist, while Sault Michigan's Tarnished are playing at the annual Michihistrigan Rendezvous motorcycle rally on Saturday in Gould City, which is a 90 minute drive from the Soo and thusly outside of our coverage range. Keep these dates in mind if you're interested though, but let's lead off with SHORT NOTICE LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS!

Local hard rock quintet HeadF1rst are the latest local band to debut at Beck's Bar, and will do so on SATURDAY NIGHT! Apologies for the short notice, we only learned about this booking via Beck's Facebook page on Tuesday, but the band first announced it on their Facebook page on Wednesday of last week, getting lost in the shuffle as we were focusing on that week's concert preview cycle. According to the band's Facebook page, "we're kicking off our tour" with this concert, their first since their album release party at Soo Blaster last month, though a planned Sudbury road trip was cancelled for last week. To promote the concert, drummer Anthony Boudreau stars in this Facebook "Reel" where he is seen having a spit take after leaving Millie's Mini-Mart nearby before checking out Beck's for himself. It's more hype for the venue than the band, but it's great to see that Beck's is catching on!

It's great to see HeadF1rst back at it, and hopefully SATURDAY'S debut at this new-ish west end venue is a blast for fans and regulars alike! This week's 3:00 PM Saturday matinee is Dodge This/ex-Phatstick frontman Jason Taillefer (no idea if his solo sets are basically one man Dodge This gigs or not), but this is a separate concert earlier in the day and he isn't "opening" for HeadF1rst. SATURDAY'S HeadF1rst concert (a one-nighter due to Friday DJ nights) has a 9:00 PM start time, no cover charge, and a 19+ age limit. Visit the above links for more details, and here's HeadF1rst live!

Next up, Sault Ontario classic/hard rock solo musician Tym Morrison will return to Beck's Bar for another matinee gig on SUNDAY! Again, apologies for the short notice, this gig was also only announced via Beck's Facebook page on Tuesday, but in this case, Tym quietly added SUNDAY'S concert to his batch Facebook event page for shows there, along with even more dates! His scheduled August 31st show was cancelled for unannounced reasons (granted, you could argue that it was rescheduled to any of the new dates), but the two new bookings are both Saturday matinees, which will see Tym rock the former Vibe Lounge on Saturday, June 21st and August 9th! He is scheduled for two further dates in the fall but we'll hold those for now due to the timeframe, so our concert calendar isn't clogged with one act's shows that far out. Good to see Tym getting lots of new bookings at Beck's, THIS SUNDAY'S included, so don't miss his busy summer slate!

As usual for matinees at Beck's (Jason Taillefer on Saturday included), Tym's shows on SUNDAY and ahead are all at 3:00 PM with 19+ age limits and no announced cover charges. See above for more details, and here's Tym live!

Moving to shows that had advance notice, it's a busy weekend for local alternative/punk cover sextet BookcluB, who will rock The Prince Township Pavilion TONIGHT to kick off Prince Township's summer concert series for 2025! This show is on the borderline of our coverage range going west, so it'll be a slight hike for fans in Sault Ontario proper, but their fun blend of atypical rock covers and ample live experience will serve them well at this outdoor-ish venue! The all ages show takes place tonight at 7:00 PM at 3042 Second Line West with a rare $10 cover charge. After that, Bookclub will perform at this year's Sault Ste. Marie Festival Of Beer at the Downtown Plaza on SATURDAY, where they are the only SMS amenable band playing this year's also outdoor-ish festivities for craft beer patrons and vendors on Queen Street East. The lineup was announced on Facebook last week, so who else is playing?

As per LopLops' Facebook page, the nominal headliners at 6:00 PM are local DJs (also opening the day's program at 12:30 PM), while musical performers include Winnipeg indie pop duo Sundayclub at 4:30 PM, BookcluB at 3:30 PM, and a mystery local band named The Catalina Wine Mixer at 2:30 PM. This show is free to check out at the Downtown Plaza with mostly cloudy weather of 14-15° projected by 9&10 News, as well as a 20% chance of rain. Hopefully things hold up there as they should tonight in Prince, so visit the above links for complete details on the Festival of Beer and tonight's concert, and for a preview, here's Bookclub live!

Finally for this preview post, we'll stay downtown, as local southern hard rock trio Bone Yard 225 will return to Reggie's Place for concerts TOMORROW & SATURDAY NIGHT! These will be their first public concerts in two weeks (also at Reggie's), after cancelling their "uncorked" show at The Water Tower Pub this past weekend due to a double booking. They have since heavily implied that they were playing a private event on Saturday (as teased in this Facebook video from that evening), so now you know what was going on. Good to see the guys back and plugged in at Reggie's this weekend, and hopefully these two "sermons" deliver all of the old school rock action and originals that fans are hoping for! Yes, Bone Yard did tease on their Facebook page on May 30th that "the album is coming along nicely", and they hope to have it ready by the end of the year. First I heard that they're working on a full album, which is great news!

Time will tell if their existing three original songs will be on it, but hopefully things go according to plan for your local 225! Tomorrow & Saturday's Reggie's shows have 19+ age limits, no cover charges, and 9:30 PM start times. Visit the above links for more details on Bone Yard's gigs this weekend, and here they are live! 

That's all for now, but stay tuned for more weekend concert previews tomorrow! Thanks everyone!

LOCAL CONCERT ALERT (Bone Yard 225), Thursday Concert Previews, And New Videos!

(Updated at 9:58 PM) This weekend's concert slate is quite busy again after getting a relative reprieve last week, so let's start things a day early today! After all, two (three?) of the shows are Thursday evening affairs, and have more to say than normal given the setting of them, so here's what you should know to start, including a SHORT NOTICE LOCAL CONCERT ALERT! We'll touch on Friday-Saturday nighters and/or the Northern Vibe Festival in preview post #2 hitting the site tomorrow.

Joining the previously confirmed Soundcheck concert at the Cruisin' The Dub car show at the newer A&W at 659 Great Northern Road tomorrow, local southern hard rock trio Bone Yard 225 will indeed be headlining the concurrent motorcycle show at the old A&W at 121 Great Northern Road TOMORROW! Apologies for the short notice on Bone Yard's end, public advertising confirming their involvement only showed up on Facebook earlier today, but remember that they have been busy prepping for the Dragonfly Run on Sunday (preview forthcoming). The dual sets by both bands at the respective A&W car and bike shows is a reprise of last year's Cruisin' The Dub festivities, only this year, Mother Nature isn't going to interfere, as 9&10 News is calling for sunny skies and weather of around 23°. Both car & bike show were rained out in 2023, so things should run smoothly across the board!

As expected, Cruisin' The Dub is in support of Multiple Sclerosis Canada, with lots of classic cars and motorcycles to check out across both Great Northern Road A&Ws, along with family friendly games, prize draws, and refreshments, and a hard rocking local band at both locations, so keep all of this in mind TOMORROW! A much bigger follow-up to the car-only show that Soundcheck played in June, the car and/or bike show will have no cover, they're absolutely ALL AGES, and both run from 5:00-8:00 PM. Visit the above links for more on TOMORROW'S action, stay tuned for more from both bands this weekend, and here are both bands live, including one of three new videos of Bone Yard 225 live via their Facebook page! Two of them were live-streamed from their concert at the Laird Agricultural Fair on Friday, including one of them covering The Ramones' classic "I Wanna Be Sedated" with bassist Warren Reville on lead vocals.

While it is vertical, the filmer largely only focused on Warren, so the orientation isn't so bad in that regard! Solid cover but the vocals came through very quiet. The other Laird Fair video (which is horizontal) sees them covering ZZ Top's "Tush" with guitarist Alex D'Ettore on lead vocals, and it's a solid cover with good energy! Embedded here is their (also horizontal!) new video from one of their Reggie's Place gigs in July, where they covered The Tragically Hip's "Little Bones" with singer/drummer Greg Simpson handling vocals. Another strong cover filmed in high quality, if slightly to its detriment given the stage lighting at Reggie's, but check this out for yourselves below, and don't miss Bone Yard TOMORROW!

Next up, Hails frontman Brenton Ellis' acoustic punk solo project Slumshine will play a rare live set TOMORROW NIGHT when they return to the Sault Ste. Marie Museum for their third straight set at the annual Fringe North Festival! The only SMS-amenable music act playing Fringe North this year, Slumshine will see Brent break out his acoustic guitar and pink knit ski mask for the first time since last year's Fringe North when he opens up "the Comet Stage", which will be set up outside of & behind the museum tomorrow night (as such, expect the same sunny & 23° weather conditions as at Cruisin' The Dub). The official program outlines all of the details you could ask for re: this year's festival, including a complete performer lineup at the Museum and elsewhere, celebrating art and culture in all of its diverse forms. Like last year, Slumshine's set (named "A Work In Progress") will be themed around Brent's recovery from drug addiction.

Click here to read more about Slumshine's modus operandi and what to expect lyrically from their set, courtesy of Fringe North's website. While Slumshine's set opens tomorrow's program at "the Comet Stage" at 7:00 PM, each individual performer is priced separately at different tiers, with no batch price packages to cover an entire day's musicians on one stage. Brent will be a musical outlier anyway tomorrow, as he precedes sets by Toronto R&B musician Aieysha Haws at 8:00 PM, Thunder Bay rapper O'Rose at 9:00 PM, and rappers from local label Sooicide Records at 10:00 PM. If you want to see Slumshine's set tomorrow from 7:00-8:00, the minimum advertised price is $5, though $15 is the "support the artist" rate (note that the program lists both tiers as being $5 higher than the online ticket page does). It is also worth noting that Brent will be jetting off to Southern Ontario for shows with Hails this weekend!

On Friday and Saturday, they'll be opening for Toronto "hypnofolk" band Twintwa (who also played with Ha!ls at It's The Pits in Leeburn) and Hamilton electro-noise rock band Better Homes For Meaner People, across both nights, the former at Vertagogo in Hamilton and the latter at the third annual Humber River Art & Music Festival in Toronto, where the three bands will be joined by Peterborough rapper Garbageface, the Soo's own Shae Tull, and many others. Hopefully both shows are hits for Brent, the Mutos, and Keeghan this weekend, but don't miss Slumshine tomorrow at the museum first! See above for more details on Fringe North 2024, and for a preview, here's Slumshine live back in 2019!

That's all for now, but stay tuned for more weekend concert previews on the site next! Thanks everyone!

LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS (Slumshine) & New Videos!!

Keeping this steady string of new posts going this week, we have two more LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS from the same artist to look at in the next month, along with some new videos, so let's get this post started!

Local acoustic punk solo project Slumshine will play at the annual Fringe North Festival for a third straight year when they rock "the Comet Stage" outside of the Sault Ste. Marie Museum on Thursday, August 22nd! Unfortunately, I completely missed plugging Slumshine's show at Fringe North last year, but I didn't miss this year's! As confirmed in the official program (Slumshine haven't updated their Facebook page since 2021), they will be the opening act on the Comet Stage for day #2 of the annual arts, culture, and inclusivity festival taking place at multiple downtown venues, though primarily at the Museum. Led by Hails frontman Brenton Ellis with his acoustic guitar and pink knit ski mask in tow, and presenting a show inspired by his recovery from addiction, Slumshine play at 7:00 PM next Thursday, preceding sets by Toronto R&B musician Aieysha Haws at 8:00 PM, ...

...Thunder Bay rapper O'Rose at 9:00 PM, and local rappers from Sooicide Records closing at 10:00 PM. Despite the tight scheduling, acts across Fringe North are individually priced at two levels (general admission and a much higher "support the artist" rate), with no batch pricing options for an entire day's lineup. While openly "pay what you can", the minimum advance admission price for Slumshine's set is $5 for the former and $15 for the latter, though $10 and $20 are suggested in the program. As this year's only hard rock/punk outpost, hopefully Slumshine go over well, so visit the above links for complete Fringe North details for this year! While we're on the subject, we have one more new show to take note of from Slumshine, as they will make their Soo Blaster debut and (I believe) their first non-Fringe North concert since 2020 when they open for Ottawa alternative/folk singer/guitarist Rory Taillon on Tuesday, September 3rd!

Rory hasn't played here since headlining at the former Gore Street Cafe in 2016, and while not punk-influenced like Brent's solo material is, his music does have thematic similarities via lyrics about mental health and his personal life, so the shoe fits in that way, and he is a talented musician with a distinctive voice! This stop on Rory's support tour for his new album "Now It's Quiet" has a likely 19+ age limit, 8:00 PM start time, and admission of $10 at this link or $15 at the door. Visit the above links for more on this all-acoustic Tuesday nighter next month, and don't miss Slumshine next week!

Next up, here's our first video look at reunited local death/thrash metal trio Pillory in concert! Filmed by an uncredited attendee of their return set at last month's all-local Crucifest replacement event at Robbie Adamson's old church in Leeburn, this was uploaded to drummer Bret Shuttleworth's YouTube channel two weeks ago. It captures their entire 44 minutes-long set, though there is a bit of minor post-production editing to cut out some dead air. Unfortunately, Bret did not list songs by name with timecodes in the description, and multiple songs were not introduced live anyway, but Pillory are continuing along the path they were carving in the late 2010s, with frontman Robert Sartini deploying Death-inspired harsh vocals, so don't expect close similarities to their "Cringe At The Cross" EP from that front alone. Prolific local musician Blair St. John is on bass here, continuing in that role from their final 2010s gigs.

This video was shot vertically, but at least the filmer captured Pillory from that high platform that other Leeburn concertgoers have used for a unique vantage point from above, and as such, the guys are least laid out for a vertical orientation better! The lighting is very inconsistent though, with Robert basically performing in shadow from what we see.  If you like brutal thrash-inspired death metal, Pillory's return after a five year hiatus (with a few false starts in the interim) will be very welcomed, so give their return set a watch below, and don't miss them opening for The Fixer at Soo Blaster on August 25th, with more to come!

Finally for this post, here's the latest videos from local progressive metal band Convergence's YouTube channel! As the wait for their third EP "Gemini" continues, the guys posted two new sampler videos of new original songs in the past month, including the previously teased "It Ate The F&$%ing Moon" (yes, that is how they censored it), but embedded below is guitarist Brendan Christie playing an apparent new original song named "You Are Not Flesh". No one else is seen in this video, but I believe Jake Valois is also playing in the other clip (granted, no one's face is shown on camera there). "You Are Not Flesh" is not visibly tied to "Gemini" in the video proper or description, but it definitely sounds the part for fans of djent and progressive metal, and of course, Brendan and Jake are considerable talents on guitar, so it'll be interesting to hear more come out! Give Convergence's new teaser clips a watch, and stay tuned for updates!

That's all for today, but stay tuned for weekend concert previews on the site next! Thanks everyone!

Recent Local Concert Videos, Plus A Unique Drum Solo!!

Today's post is devoted to some recent videos, mostly from cover-centric musicians, and let's begin with bands recently seen in concert, starting with two live-streamed videos from local southern hard rock trio Bone Yard's Facebook page at Shooters Downstairs Lounge on Friday night! One is a 30 second clip of the guys covering ZZ Top's "La Grange", but embedded below is a much longer (if not full) rendition of Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Simple Man". Alas, both were filmed vertically, but the person behind the camera got good angles of Bone Yard in action, especially on "La Grange" while it lasted, and the guys sound solid overall on both! Give Bone Yard's newest concert videos a watch above & below!

Next up, here's some newer videos of local classic/hard rock cover quartet Generations' show at Shooters on Friday the 13th, as filmed by attendee Monique Chartrand and uploaded to the band's Facebook group the following day! One is a cover of Creedence Clearwater Revival's "Bad Moon Rising" with drummer Tony Santoro on lead vocals, but the video embedded below is longer and features frontwoman Valerie Powley on vocals. I admittedly cannot identify this cover, but that's not the fault of Monique or her camera, as there's an abnormal level of audience chatter during it that really complicates trying to hear Valerie's singing in any detail. Like with Bone Yard's video above, these were filmed vertically, but more distantly from a table, so keep that in mind. Well performed all around, if not entirely ideal to viewing quality depending on what you prefer, so give these a watch above & below!

Also today, here's some new videos from local alt-punk trio A Dire Setback's Facebook page in the past week! Well, less videos and more "Reels", as all of their recent uploads are as such, making them all permanently vertical, unable to be played in background tabs, and unable to be embedded on external websites. Interestingly, these "Reels" mostly feature footage shot when they opened for The Nameless Friends at Reggie's Place earlier this month, despite the band never plugging the concert on Facebook. Despite being brand new concert footage, four of the "Reels" just feature edited clips set to audio from their 2020 self-titled debut album ("Faded", their self-titled song, "Kicking & Screaming", and "Everlasting"), along with lyrics for included song snippets laid on screen. Local bands that post exclusive video footage in "Reels" rarely post the raw/full video separately, but it'd be neat if A Dire Setback did!

The only other new "Reel" was made to promote "Kicking & Screaming" music video and their debut album, with a (pillarboxed) clip from the video and more lyrics superimposed. It is great to see A Dire Setback ramp up their online presence this month after largely being quiet on Facebook post-pandemic, and while I've never been fond of "Reels", at least they're giving fans some new media. Check them out above!

We'll close today with a video that I should have covered on here months ago just on novelty factor alone, and it features Double Down/ex-That's Chester drummer Ric Datson playing a drum solo.... inside the Sault Ste. Marie Museum?! Yes, the museum at the corner of Queen & East hosts live concerts occasionally as well as the Fringe North festival, but it's still not the first locale you think of for a drum solo. Of course, Ric is the assistant curator of the museum, so he had an in to get his gear inside! Ric set up his Crush acrylic drumkit inside an empty gallery during a changeover in temporary exhibits, and was mainly filmed for fun to see how this newer kit sounded in a big, empty room. As uploaded to his YouTube channel in June, the video starts with 38 seconds of sped-up footage of Ric setting up his drums, before jumping to him drumming for almost four minutes.

The main view is an overhead shot from behind him, while the other (seen in an inset window in the upper left) is from a straight-on view to his left. This is a neat video for fans of Ric's (let alone drum solos), and while I'm sure you'd better appreciate the acoustics of the room in person, the echo and reverb does come through in the video, and it's certainly a unique way to see a local drummer show his stuff! Give it a watch for yourselves below!

That's all for today, but stay tuned for more news and notes on the site this week! Thanks everyone!